Palantir CEO Warns AI Will Shift Power to Working Class

Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp warned on Thursday that artificial intelligence will profoundly disrupt American society by shifting economic power away from highly educated voters and toward working-class individuals, potentially reshaping political dynamics in the process.

Speaking in a CNBC interview on the sidelines of the AIPCon 9 conference in Maryland, Karp described AI as a force that undervalues humanities-trained professionals, who tend to lean Democratic, while elevating those with vocational skills, often men in working-class roles. "This technology disrupts humanities-trained, largely Democratic voters, and makes their economic power less," Karp said. "And increases the economic power of vocationally trained, working-class, often male voters." He added that such changes "are going to disrupt every aspect of our society."

Karp stressed the urgency of addressing these shifts collaboratively. "To make this work, we have to come to an agreement on what it is we're going to do with the technology," he said, including how to communicate with workers facing diminished job quality and opportunities. Studies, including warnings from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, indicate...